Stephen William Shaw

Stephen William Shaw (December 15, 1817 – February 12, 1900) was a California '49er and portrait painter who helped discover and name Humboldt Bay and introduced viticulture to Sonoma County by 1864.

Early life Stephen W. Shaw was born December 15, 1817, at Windsor, Vermont, to Seth and Elizabeth Barrett Shaw, descendants of Puritans and American Revolutionaries. He became a self-taught painter. As a young adult, Shaw taught drawing and penmanship at Norwich Military Academy, Shaw advertised to execute portraits in Crayon in Wooster, Ohio in September 1842, then became an art teacher and director of the Boston Athenaeum Shaw traveled to Veracruz and Mexico City, painting the portrait on his return to New Orleans. After crossing the Isthmus of Panama, he booked passage on the Dutch bark, Alexander von Humboldt, which left Panama on May 20, 1849. Becalmed for five weeks, they reached Acapulco July 6 where the passengers forced the owners off the boat due to poor provisioning and overcrowding. After more than three months voyage, the ship finally arrived in San Francisco, August 30, 1849 One of the other passengers, Collis P. Huntington, formed an association of the 365 survivors of the 102-day passage, called "The Society of the Humboldter." Huntington sponsored reunions and at least one commemorative poster; the last four members met on August 30, 1899.

Contrary to at least one published report,

Discovery of Humboldt Bay In March 1850, Shaw left San Francisco on the schooner Laura Virginia, under Captain Douglass Ottenger.

From the sea, the entrance to the bay was masked by lines of breakers. The depth was unknown. Rather than risk the schooner in an attempt to enter, Captain Ottinger sent in a boat. Second mate Hans Henry Buhne and crew succeeded in taking the boat over the bar and landing on a point opposite the entrance. Climbing the nearby bluff, Buhne could clearly make out the channel between two lines of breakers. As they returned to the schooner they sounded the channel. That same day, together with a second boat, they carried in passengers and supplies. Buhne rejoined the schooner, and on April 14, 1850, piloted the Laura Virginia into the bay. Shaw sketched the first views of the bay On April 26, 1850, the San Francisco Daily Journal of Commerce published a wood engraving based on his sketches of Humboldt Bay.

From Sutter's to farming in Humboldt County

In 1851, Shaw spent much of the year with John Augustus Sutter at Hock Farm on the Feather River as the family portrait painter and general business agent. Shaw returned to San Francisco,

In summer 1852, they moved across the Eel River and began clearing the area where the town of Ferndale, California, would later be incorporated. In the rainy winter of 1852–1853, twelve men, including Seth Kinman, stayed with the Shaws because theirs was the most finished cabin. Shaw spent the next two years coaxing plants to grow in the cold coastal fog. Around 1852, he painted the portrait of Wiyot elder Kiwelattah (or Ki-we-lah-tah). Finally, with little to show for his labors,

On April 18, 1861, Shaw married Mary Frances Meacham at the First Unitarian Church in San Francisco. Shaw grew grapes and is credited with introducing wine grape cultivation to Sonoma County. The Shaws had two children before Mary died October 2, 1866. Shaw spent 1871 abroad August 12, 1873, on his return to San Francisco.

Shaw died February 14, 1900, in San Francisco, memorialized in an obituary in the San Francisco Examiner, 16 February 1900. and the San Francisco Art Association. M. H. de Young Memorial Museum, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Col. Edward D. Baker, U.S. Senator and confidant of Abraham Lincoln (E.B. Crocker Collection #196) R.B. Blowers, Woodland, California, grower and grape transport pioneer (E.B. Crocker Collection #748) Peter Burnett, first governor of California, (E.B. Crocker Collection #210) David C. Broderick, U.S. Senator, (E.B. Crocker Collection #206) Charles Crocker, 1872 (E.B. Crocker Collection #383) Judge E.B. Crocker, 1872 (E.B. Crocker Collection #384) Isaac Elphinston Davis, (1833–1888) passenger on the Alexander von Humboldt (private collection) Mrs. Isaac Elphinston Davis (private collection) John Brooks Felton, half-length oil portrait (Bancroft Library) Capt. J.L. Folsom (E.B. Crocker Collection #205) John W. Geary, first mayor of San Francisco Hon. Edward Gilbert, (E.B. Crocker Collection #193) William M. Gwin, U.S. Senator, (E.B. Crocker Collection #200) Col. Jack Hays, sheriff of San Francisco 1850 (E.B. Crocker Collection #211) Thomas Hill, American landscape artist, (E.B. Crocker Collection #207) Collis P. Huntington, 1872 (E.B. Crocker Collection #380) Maj. Gen. H.W. Halleck, General, lawyer and land speculator, (E.B. Crocker Collection #195) Mark Hopkins, 1872 (E.B. Crocker Collection #387) Andrew Jackson, seventh United States President. 1872, (E.B. Crocker Collection #87) Thomas Starr King, Unitarian Minister, (E.B. Crocker Collection #197) Kiwelattah (or Ki-we-lah-tah), c.1852 full-length painting of Wiyot elder (Clarke Historical Museum) Thomas O. Larkin, U.S. Consulm (E.B. Crocker Collection #209) Peter Lassen, California Pioneer (E.B. Crocker Collection #198) Jacob P. Leese, California Pioneer (E.B. Crocker Collection #203) S.S. Montague, Chief engineer Central Pacific Railroad, (E.B. Crocker Collection #385) Hon. Romualdo Pacheco, American politician and diplomat (E.B. Crocker Collection #208) Samuel Purdy, (E.B. Crocker Collection #204) William C. Ralston, founder of the Bank of California (M. H. de Young Memorial Museum) Portrait of Isabella Shaw, wife of Seth Shaw, by his brother Stephen William Shaw. Ferndale Museum Alfred Macy, (1831–1874) Governor's Council of Massachusetts (Nantucket Historical Society) Edmond Randolph, (1818–1861) California lawyer and historian (E.B. Crocker Collection #199) Robert Robinson, (E.B. Crocker Collection #202) Isabella Shaw (Ferndale Museum) Brigadier General Persifor Frazer Smith, 1848 (City of New Orleans) Leland Stanford, 1872 (E.B. Crocker Collection #382) Col. J.D. Stevenson, mining and real estate entrepreneur (E.B. Crocker Collection #192) General John A. Sutter, June 1851 (Bancroft Library) General John A. Sutter, (E.B. Crocker Collection #194 – different than 1851 portrait) Zachary Taylor, 1846 then General in the Mexican–American War, later President of the United States. Mariano Vallejo, Californian military commander, politician, and rancher, (E.B. Crocker Collection #201) Vallejo family portraits (Vallejo Home State Park, Sonoma, California)